Mortified

Taylor is sure she will die of shame when Don and Glenda enter a talent quest for parents at her school. Not one to back away from a challenge, Taylor drags Hector along on a crusade to prove via DNA analysis that Don and Glenda are in fact not her parents, and therefore cannot enter the talent quest.

Hector secretly nominates Taylor for School Captain, unwittingly igniting her passion for politics. It seems to be a two-horse race as Taylor goes up against the perfect, beautiful and seemingly unbeatable Brittany Flune. Taylor finds herself determined to win, all the while trying to ignore her father's petty annual 'Christmas Lights' rivalry with Brittany's father.

Taylor is embarrassed when she's sprung fantasising about becoming a pro-surfer, and covers by claiming she can surf. But when heart-throb Leon invites her to enter a surfing competition, Taylor feels she has no choice but to enter. The situation snowballs as Taylor is forced to learn how to surf within a few short days - on her dad's massive Malibu surfboard!

It's Taylor's first day in year 7 at her new high school, and she's confident that it will be everything she dreamed it would be. But her enthusiasm quickly dissolves as everything that can go wrong does go wrong. She misses the bus, loses Hector and, when she eventually makes it to school, she smells like rotten fish - thanks to her mother's super home-mix de-stress aromatherapy ointment.

With parent-teacher night looming, Taylor wakes up to find her dad doing biceps curls on the front lawn, surrounded by stack of vinyl records. Layla informs her that his bizarre behaviour is due to a mid-life crisis, and might last anywhere up to three years. Taylor is mortified at the prospect of her father showing up at parent-teacher night, and tries in vain to prevent him from going.

It's work experience time and Taylor is thrilled to be granted a position with the local radio station, working as a DJ. But her hopes fade as she is assigned to Mystic Marj's psychic talk-back segment. Worse, she is forced to get in touch with her own inner psychic when Mystic Marj accidentally locks herself in the toilets, leaving Taylor to deal with a switchboard full of needy callers, going by the pseudonym of "Claire Voyant". However, Taylor receives a Valentine's Day card from a secret admirer (who is actually Hector).